Impulse

So I will 100% vouch for the new Nexxspeed AAP hop unit. I had a Loki in mine and it was a bit shaky, as it was installed a fraction of a millimetre off-centre, so all my shots were curving slightly to the side. I bought the new Nexxspeed unit after the one in my hi-capa was a phenomenal piece of kit and the AAP one is just as good, if not better. With a 50 degree Flamingo rubber, mine was sailing .32s out past 60m (only really accurate to 50m) with very little hop up applied. I could probably put .48s through it and hop them very nicely, but I'm not an asshole so I won't. Also, with the short stroke and lightweight blowback unit it splurges the entire mag in under a second when the fun switch is flicked on and with .48s that'd probably bankrupt me within a game. Won't be using the full auto much (just for a few people who deserve it ), but on semi-auto it was also getting through 4 mags on a single fill today, shooting quickly and one after the other, so I reckon that'll be fine even into winter. All in all, I'm super happy with the build now that the Nexxspeed unit is in. Pistol build complete

I cast raise dead and bring this thread back to life! I'm currently waiting on an SRS and wanted to know what the best lube to use was. I've got super lube (a ptfe-based grease) and silicon spray and tend to use super lube where it's metal on metal and the spray where it's not metal on metal. I'm going to be using a WASP piston and just wanted to make sure on the lube I should be using on the cup and inside the cylinder. Outside the cylinder I'll be using the ptfe grease, same as on the rest of my bolt actions, but wasn't sure about the inside, so any guidance is appreciated.

Ok, so I went and bought a bunch more stuff, but my Longbow order is delayed due to customs being customs. Jason gave me a call today to explain and said he'd throw in a bottle of .45s for the inconvenience, but it means I won't be able to test the build for another two weeks as my local site is only once every two weeks and I won't get it by this weekend Ah well, at least basically the entire internal build arrived. Mega impressed that the Orga barrel arrived, as I ordered it from Japan on Saturday and it arrived today! Missing the rifle, suppressor, fast hop unit and pouches for the magazines, as that was my longbow order.

It's one of ak2m4's ones. It's out of stock at the moment, but it's really nice: https://www.ak2m4.co.uk/external-parts/suppressors/xt-suppressor-long-155mm Yeah. It's the Gunsmith Bros XCarry 5.1 slide. I didn't like a lot of the metal slides because they just looked a bit too... much? I like my simple guns, so all the metal slides with holes all over them and weird geometric patterns... no thank you

I don't usually like getting metal slides for my TM pistols because I love how efficient the plastic slides are... but my hi-capa slide snapped at the front when the front sight was ripped out by some very determined brambles that I was wading through (the bottom part of the Worthing Airsoft site is basically unplayable at the moment...) So my hi-capa now has a metal slide. Surprisingly snappy still on green gas at room temperature thanks to the lightweight blowback unit and probably feels the best to shoot due to the fact it's still snappy but the metal slide has some weight to it; might get a bigger recoil spring, but we'll see. Will be running it on propane anyway, so here's hoping it'll be fine in the winter too.

2nd game day of not being able to play and I'm definitely feeling it. The weather was lovely yesterday at Worthing Airsoft; the sun was out, the temperature was warm but not too warm, and there was barely any wind. Add to that the first game had objectives that I would've loved to mess about with and I was annoyed I couldn't play, however I'm out until October and I have a firm date for my heart procedure, so in the long run things will be good; it just sucks to miss the summer season of airsoft. I still went down as usual to chat and have a look around during the safety brief and lunch hour when no games were going on to try and work out how to approach the site now since it's so bushy and MEDs are hard to negotiate during the summer months; hell I reckon even this winter might be difficult with how many new branches are growing outwards. There was also a new bunker built near the other new bunker and a bunch of sandbags set up between them making a trench line. It's a really nice little base area, however there are issues. My friend who was playing said that the teams weren't well balanced and the yellow team got pushed all the way back to their spawn. The issue here is that with the two bunkers, the farther one had an objective on it and the closer one is pretty damn close to the yellow team's spawn point, so there was a lot of frustration as people couldn't get out of their spawn. Funnily enough, this irked me even more simply because I found a way to counteract that position for precisely that situation; there's a position I found with a totally clear line of sight to the forward bunker (relative to the spawn point) that is easy to get into and can be reached without being spotted at all. The distance is also 62m from the position to the bunker itself, so it's a perfect position for a bolt action or DMR; I found I could easily post shots through the windows with my VSR when I took it out at lunch time last game day to see how easy it was to hit, but also if I am noticed getting into that spot, I'm confident at 62m most people's 1.1J guns just won't be hitting out to that distance with accuracy, so I can probably hit them before they can hit me. Though that said having looked at the spot from the bunker while my friend moved into it during the lunch hour I would be really surprised if somebody noticed; I was looking directly at the location and I couldn't see him! My friend eventually came back before lunch and called it a day there, as he was saying that hit taking was also pretty laughable. Again, I can't verify that as I wasn't playing, but I trust him. So, what did I do with the day? Well, I did pack 8 guns as there was space in the car and no that isn't a typo. I brought my Tanaka m700, KJW m700, G&P m14, mk12 MWS, VSR and hi-capa, as well as two new gats I bought from people here, a JG skorpion and a DE m870 breacher, all to test on the range as they were either new purchases or they were guns I had upgraded and worked on over the last two weeks. Good thing is that almost everything worked well, so I spent some time setting the hop and getting a feeling for how they shot. The VSR was the big one, as I wanted to make sure it could shoot at 1.1J so I can take it to the night game we have at Worthing at the end of October, so I confirmed I could get that set up and then changed it back to 2.3J. 155psi for 2.3J on a .48, 80psi for 1.1J on a .32, both using co2. The hi-capa I need a new slide for, as the front sight came out during my last game day a month ago and I think it weakened the front when it was pulled out by whatever pulled it out, as when I put a new front sight on it the front of the slide snapped and pinged off when I test shot it. Recovered the new front sight and will get a metal slide when my paycheck comes in this week. That said, apart from the hi-capa that needs a new slide, every single one of my guns is now set up and done. I've packed most of my collection away as I simply don't have the room for them all to be out (I live in a room in a shared house and it's quite a full room by this point...), but before I did so I made sure they were all performing where I want them to; the last ones were the ones I'm keeping out and are my general go-to guns. I also discovered that my very large Visionking 3.5-25x56mm scope only likes being on my m700s, as the mounts don't go onto any of my other guns and keep it straight, and I don't want to spend £80 or so picking up some real-steel scope mounts because 34mm tubes aren't exactly common in airsoft. I'll just keep that as my m700 scope and put other scopes on other things. Now that's all done I think I'll just be practicing some long distance shots on the range during game days, so this is likely my last game day report for a while unless something spicy happens. I will now live vicariously through your posts until I'm back on the field in probably about 8 weeks time!

Never buy gen 1 ?

This was my immediate reaction. I use gas guns and my most used main gun is a gas bolt action that I have to tweak that at the start of every game day since weather conditions affect the power. If I go to a game day and it's 18 celcius, then turn up to the NAF and it's 25 celcius, my gun will obviously be over the limit if I don't tweak it. It's also why I usually aim for about 2 - 2.1J at the morning chrono rather than 2.2 - 2.3J, because it gives me a bit of room as a buffer against temperature increases through the day.

I'll echo the praises for RIFT's weekenders. I went to Shift Your RIFTs this year for the first time and was super impressed by it. It was well run with plenty of staff to make sure things went smoothly and there wasn't too much cheating; I encountered a single person across the entire weekend who wasn't taking his hits. I haven't been to the epic weekender that they have coming up, but me and my friends may be heading there as we have no interest in the NAF now and it is probably a good alternative. Outside of that, I go to AI500 regularly, but that's more of a social thing. The airsoft is usually generally poor, though I'd argue it's a bit better than the NAF, but the sites they secure are usually really great. I also go to Gunman's filmsim weekends, specifically Vietnam for myself but they also do Cold War, 90s and even Star Wars events! They're well run and a good laugh, run by a good team of people, though they have a few kit requirements to make sure everyone looks the part. Can't turn up to a Vietnam game in multicam with a hi-capa running m4 mags, but at the same time the kit doesn't need to be totally 100% accurate, no matter what the stitch-counters may say. An m4 with plastic grips and a carry handle, paired with a simple pair of black pyjamas and a chicom is a perfectly adequate VC kit, for example (captured weapon)

The remaining guns that need testing and tweaking while I'm not allowed to play. Most are simple tests and tweaking, nothing major since I finally got the MWS hopping the ammo I want to put through it last Sunday. It's mostly just setting the hop for the weights I want to use, but a few other minor tweaks needed. From left to right: TM MWS w/ Modelworks mk12 kit - Need to make sure it's shooting straight. Scope I had on it was wonky because of the mounts on Sunday Tanaka m700 w/ real Remington stock - Installed a new hop rubber and nub as it was a bit crap before. Need to set the hop now with the new setup JG BAR-10 - Just need to find what psi to set for 1.1J so I can use it at night games / no MED games; disgustingly quiet since it's internally suppressed and half of that outer barrel is just alternating large/small foam baffles. Already know it shoots phenomenally at 155psi, which gives about 2.3J on .48s, and I can go as low as 80psi, so sure I can get it to 1.1J as well G&P m14 DMR - Ironically not a DMR. Wasn't hopping well, but power, noise and snappiness was all amazing, so installed a new MR hop rubber. Need to set the hop up now. KJW m700 - Usually has a suppressor on it! Finally got around to finishing this one with the threaded shorter outer barrel, as well as the AA hop unit, nub and flamingo rubber. Need to set it up, both power and hop up. I think I have a type... ?

No actual playing for me today because medication, but I still headed down to Worthing Airsoft for the game day. Headed out while everyone was in the safety brief and had a long think about how to approach the site. I like my bolt actions and DMRs but with how overgrown the site gets every year, and the fact that it only gets worse every year as no maintenance is done, it's an incredibly difficult site to play at with an MED, so just being able to walk around and have a think when there aren't any BBs flying about is incredibly useful. At lunch time me and my friend went into the gameplay area as well to try and figure some things out, getting a new spot that draws a nasty line onto one of the bases from a concealed spot, and then working out a way to counter the new bunker, as what had happened in the morning during a rolling assault game had 3 people hold it for 40 minutes. We found a spot that is easy to get to and has about 70m of clear line of sight to the bunker, and we took a few shots to see how easy it would be to post through the window and both of us were able to slot shots through the window very easily. I spent the rest of the day sorting the MWS. Was having issues with it not liking heavy ammo, and as a DMR I wanted to use .43s in it. New setup works really well (flamingo rubber + titan nub), but the scope is off-centre, which sucked. Also setup the VSR to use co2 inside the stock instead of a line and tank and was very pleased with how well it shot; it was so good that I'm considering using the co2 adapter for the MTW 308 when I get that build done. I heard from my friend that the teams weren't very well balanced, and heard quite a few complaints about hit-taking, overshooting (probably related), players getting upset over stuff and spawn camping, as well as one of the ghillies constantly going out of bounds (surprise surprise...) and climbing up trees despite "there is no climbing up trees or on top of bases" being a line in the morning brief. Can't speak to the veracity of it all, but I trust the people who told me their stories, so it sounded like a bit of a rough one today.

Yeahhhhh, rookie error. If I think I'm hitting someone but I'm actually dropping short, or if I am hitting them and they're blatantly not taking hits, I just... stay quiet and shoot them some more. If it's blatant non-hit taking that I can clearly see, those shots may move up from the torso to the head; you get 3 chances with me! Also, you can definitely get decent range with 0.65J. I know my TM mp7 AEP can do about 45m with a degree of accuracy (the shots hit about as hard as gentle caress at that range though) and that's 0.6J on .25s. It's all in the hop! I've heard about those STG44s from a friend who did a lot of WW2 airsoft. He was not the biggest fan of some of the Axis players showing up with those on full auto because as you said, they're DMRs out of the box. Your experience with them though mirrors what I love about the hobby; some people like speedyboi slick efficient "I want to win" loadouts with lightweight guns, highcap magazines and quick-to-access molle pouches, others like us like a bit of impracticality to use the things that we like

Yeah, I bought into it because the devs actually seem quite engaged with the community and acknowledge when things aren't working as they should and are pretty on it when it comes to getting the community to help them test bug fixes. All in all, I am optimistic

Aliexpress. I'll never buy earmors or baofang radios outside of Aliexpress now because it's so much cheaper https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005576530912.html And I'll take a look at that. I'd like to be able to run these with comms, but in the meantime I'll probably get a separate earpiece as I just can't get along with headsets with the boonie

Probably my last game day for a while because I'm probably going onto anticoagulants on Tuesday which means no airsoft until the procedure is done and the recovery is over. Unfortunately it went out with a bit of a whimper though. I took my G&P m14 and KJW m40a5 along with the intent of using the m14 with the m40a5 as a backup in case it wasn't shooting great. Suffice to say, it wasn't shooting great. The power is exactly where I want it and it's incredibly quiet for an AEG, but I think it needs a new hop rubber as the BBs just weren't really hopping very well, so the range was a bit poor. So why didn't I go back to the safe zone and grab my m40a5? Because I had no motivation to, basically. Worthing Airsoft at the moment is a pointless site to use anything with an MED at as there are only a few, very limited spots where you can actually use it. Furthermore, some of the spots that were fine now have twiggy bits in the way, which is wonderful for sending your shots off course, which isn't as much of a problem for semi or full auto guns as you can usually punch through, but single shot bolt actions? Not so much. Anyway, not much to really say. First game was a king of the hill style game over the Tower base; I took a flanking route and discovered the bottom of the site is currently unplayable. It took the entire game for me to fight my way through the foliage. When we flipped sides, I went to my normal spot and that's where I realised the m14 just wasn't firing well. The scope mount was slightly off so all my shots looked like they were going to the left, and the hop up wasn't working well so I was struggling to hit 50m. Combine that with the aforementioned twiggy bits and I had quite a few frustrating moments where I caught someone completely unawares only for my shots to either fall short or hit a twig and go to Narnia, giving them the opportunity to seek cover and get out of my line of sight. Anyway, now I have a few months of no gameplay, so I'm going to spend these game days on the range making sure my guns that need a bit of tweaking are sufficiently tweaked and also might put some DOPE cards together for my main bolt actions (KJW m40a5 and m700) and my DMRs (MWS and the MTW when I get it). It'd be nice to know reliably where to aim to hit targets out to 85m and beyond with a measure of accuracy. I did plink a little with the m40a5 today on the range and it was performing flawlessly as usual; hitting the 75m with pretty much every shot and even reaching to the 85m, but with less accuracy for sure; it's amazing how much difference that extra 10m makes.

I really liked them. Didn't work amazingly over a bowman headset, but the bowman headset didn't work well with my boonie and would've given me a headache as it made it too tight. For £30 I was very happy with the noise cancellation and the very strong ambient sound amplification. The sound amplification was actually too good and all I could hear when I was moving through foliage was the foliage itself brushing past me and any and all creaking in my gear setup. Once I was deployed in a hide though, they were amazing and I heard absolutely everything. £30 well spent for sure.

Just arrived in time for tomorrow's game day; pair of Earmor m20 in ear protection. Testing them in my room they seem to work well, but I need a game day to see how they really fare. Can't wear a full headset with my ghillie setup as it's a boonie + cape, so hoping these are at least decent. Will wear them also under my bowman headset that I use for comms (as that goes under my boonie nicely)

On the cheaper end, I have a set of Earmor m31s (not m32s, m32 are the radio comms and I have some of those too) and they're decent enough and can be bought on Aliexpress for £30 + tax. There are definitely better out there, so look around with your budget as your budget is significantly higher, but these work for me and they amplify small ambient noises like footsteps and leaf rustling, while cutting down on pyro boom boom noises. My next experiment I'm waiting on are a set of Earmor m20s, which are in-ear protection as my ghillie setup uses a boonie and headsets like the m31/m32s don't work well with boonies, especially not since my boonie is my ghillie headpiece and I don't want to cover my ghillie camo with earpro. I can't comment on them though because they probably won't arrive until either late this week (ideal as I'm playing on Sunday) or early next week (more likely because Sod's Law)

All I need now to complete my loadout are some delicious crayons to snack on for the authentic experience

Don't go for power upgrades if you want more range. Power upgrades are the really expensive bit and if you're keeping it spring (which is advisable because HPA is an entirely new kettle of fish) then cocking it at 2.3J is always going to be difficult, especially for a 12 year old. There are certain things you can do to mitigate it, such as using a 13mm spring like the Rapax 2J spring, getting a good quality teflon cylinder and getting as close to perfection as you can when it comes to air seal to allow you to run a lighter spring, but at the end of the day your son will need to be able to pull that spring back to tension. Power will affect range, but not by too much; the biggest impact power will have is making it easier to hop heavier BBs, but until you're looking at going the 2.3J route you can hop .32s perfectly easily on the stock power by simply focusing on upgrading the hop up. There's also no point trying to go for like... 1.4J or something because you'll be saddled with an MED for unnoticeable gains. In my experimentation, I only found a noticeable increase in effective range once I started pushing past 1.8J; obviously these are just my experiences and other people are welcome to scream at me that I'm wrong, but I have high standards for what "effective range" is and I've been doing this for a while; I'll never mince words or over-estimate ranges. Hop up is where you get the lion's share of your range and accuracy anyway and it's way cheaper than doing power upgrades, so I'd definitely start there. The Action Army hop chamber is great and the stock VSR one is a bit wank, so that's a key part to swap out. Then that can be paired with a Flamingo bucking or Maple Leaf autobot bucking, plus something like a Maple Leaf omega nub and that'll be most of the impact. If you want, while you're in there you could put something like a Laylax 6.03 barrel in there, as the tighter bore will help push the power up a little bit. Tightbore barrels don't tend to affect accuracy, as much as people may say they do, but they do affect power because there's less space around the BB for air to escape. I recommend the Laylax ones because I've had one in one of my VSR builds for... uhhhh... longer than your son has been alive and it's still working perfectly ?. For the hop chamber, bucking of your choice, concave nub of your choosing and a tightbore barrel you're probably only looking at about £120ish and the difference will be a whole lot more noticeable than dropping £300+ upgrading the power (because doing a good build you can easily spend that on power upgrades alone). With the stock power in a TM VSR (about 0.8J ish?), you can probably hit 50m fairly consistently just by focusing on hop up and barrel upgrades. Plus, no MED so you can shoot people point blank and watch them get salty about it which is always amusing. Also, lighter springs tend to be quieter than heavy ones as there isn't quite such a forceful thud. When he's older I'd definitely look at the power upgrades and putting something like a WASP piston in the cylinder to help make it even quieter, but for now I'd just focus on the hop up instead. Especially since those damn TM cylinders are a real pain to get apart (I just bought a Laylax teflon cylinder instead when I did mine because I'm not drilling the stock cylinder!)

Another Aliexpress success. Bought it for Vietnam games to carry my long m700 magazines, because they're far better quality magazines and far more consistent than the stubby KJW mags, and they fit perfectly. They go deeper, but thought I'd leave them there to show the space and how they fit in. Very happy with this as it'll allow me to take a lot of weight off my belt kit as these mags are heavy (because gas gun)

Yeah, I have a TM p226e2 and my mags don't look like yours. The TM ones don't have pins in the bottom, they have a screw in the baseplate (far better design, why did they go back to pins in their newer pistols?!), and the TM ones say "made in Japan" on one side. I don't know if the e2 mags work in the older p226, but I do know the mags you have aren't TM ones